Severely ill pastor improving

Monday, May 15, 2017

Pastor Yang Hua(Photo: ChinaAid)

ChinaAid

(Guiyang, Guizhou—May 15, 2017) An imprisoned pastor who
developed a critical medical condition while in custody in China’s southern
Guizhou province is improving after he was temporarily transferred to a new
prison, his wife said on May 3.

Li Guozhi, better known as his alias, Yang Hua, developed
a severe form of vasculitis after doctors working in his detention center
improperly treated ulcers that materialized on his legs, rendering him unable
to walk. He was admitted to the hospital, where physicians notified his wife,
Wang Hongwu, that he was critically ill. She was allowed to visit him, and they
had their first in-person conversation since he was taken into custody on Dec.
9, 2015.

Because of his illness, authorities temporarily relocated
to another prison, where Wang says he has been allowed to heal: “I visited Yang Hua in prison yesterday [May
2]. Although he had to ask another prisoner to carry him to the conference
room, his condition is getting better. We talked for 20 minutes. I asked him to
show me his feet, and I was glad to see that the measles on his shin bones
disappeared, the festers became scabs, and the old scabs healed … Yang Hua told
me that one of his legs was functioning, while another was still too weak to
support him. The prison does not have his medications, although he still lives
in the medical ward. He was transferred from the Baiyun Prison to the Kaili
Prison on the 16th [of April]. The family members, strictly
speaking, only my son and I, could visit him once a month. Not even his brother
was allowed to visit him. The prison permits him to call me once a month for no
more than ten minutes.”

Yang was originally taken into
police custody on Dec. 9, 2015, for trying to prevent officials from
confiscating a church hard drive. He spent 10 days in administrative detention
for “the crime of obstructing justice” and “gathering a crowd to disturb public
order” before being charged with “illegally possessing state secrets” and being
transferred to criminal detention. He was arrested on Jan. 22, 2016, and his
charge changed a fourth time to “divulging state secrets.” During the time
leading up to his trial, which was held on Dec. 26, 2016, he was repeatedly
tortured by his prosecutors. On Jan. 5, a Guiyang court sentenced him to
two-and-a-half years in prison.

ChinaAid celebrates Yang’s recovery
as a part of our ongoing efforts to encourage Christians persecuted for their
faith and exposes abuses enacted against him in order to promote religious
freedom, human rights, and rule of law.